


Plans and Proposals

by misura



Category: Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-09 05:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8876983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "I hear Solya proposed to you again," Alosha said.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dasyatidae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasyatidae/gifts).



Practicing with Alosha was better than practicing with the other knights. Kasia knew that she was getting better at not knocking them over by accident, but every once in a while, one would look at her and make her feel like doing it on purpose.

"I hear Solya proposed to you again," Alosha said, and Kasia knew this game, of course.

It was called 'unbalance your opponent so that they'll make a mistake'. Solya was nothing. He wasn't worth hating, not like the Wood had been; he was simply a nuisance.

Sooner or later, he'd figure out that pretending to be smitten with Kasia was not going to convince anyone of his loyalty to the new king, that people's memories weren't as fickle as that -

\- except that it appeared that some people's memories _were_.

Her wooden practice sword broke cleanly, in a way a sword of metal would not have done. Still, Kasia was glad that they had been alone, that nobody would carry the story of this around.

 

Flowers had been delivered to both her office as Captain of the Guard and her personal rooms.

"He's a wizard," Alosha said, shrugging. Kasia sensed her amusement, bubbling under the surface. "He has plenty of money to spend on courting gifts."

"I don't want him to court me." The idea was horrible, distasteful. It made her want to find him and shake some manners into him. She knew that it would be a useless thing to do, a mistake, even.

Solya was playing a game, just like Alosha had played one with her, in the practice yard, but Solya's game was different, unpleasant, intended only to use her rather to help her.

"You could ask Stashek to banish him. Not forever," Alosha added, "but for a few months. To demonstrate that his loyalty is still in some doubt, contrary to what he'd like people to believe."

"Wouldn't that just make it worse?" Kasia knew that if she made the request, Stashek might agree. It wouldn't even have to be an actual banishment - there were plenty of tasks a wizard might perform for a king. Sarkan had already taken care of cleansing the last traces of corruption in the capital, and Kasia wouldn't have wanted him to trust such a task to Solya anyway, but there were other tasks, other places that could do with a bit of attention from a wizard.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. He has his pride; if he hears that you had him sent away, he might feel obliged to make some sort of gesture in return, to strike back."

Kasia grimaced. Alosha's amusement had ebbed. It made her glad to see Alosha view the situation as a problem to solve, rather than a joke to laugh at, even if she also missed the warmth laughter brought to Alosha's eyes and face.

"I suppose it's too much to hope that he'll challenge me to a duel or something."

"He's not that much of a fool," Alosha agreed. "Sadly. Have you considered taking a lover? It wouldn't have to be anything serious, but few men in Solya's position would pursue a woman clearly involved with someone else."

"I'm not - " Pretending to like someone only so that Solya would leave her alone sounded like a horrible idea. As to actually liking someone, Kasia wasn't able to think of a single person she'd met at court whom she was even remotely interested in kissing, let alone do more than that. "Who?"

"Yes, I see your point." Alosha frowned. "If they take you too seriously, you'd only be trading one nuisance for a lesser one. And letting them in on the plan carries its own risks."

Alosha was the only one Kasia truly trusted, other than Stashek and Marisha. If Solya heard that Kasia and Alosha were involved, surely he would have no choice but to stop acting so falsely.

Kasia bit her lip, feeling shy of a sudden. "Would you - ?"

It was lovely, to see the laughter come welling up again. "My pleasure," Alosha said.

 

"Truly, it was not my intention to drive you to such extreme measures."

Kasia supposed that it had been too much to hope for Solya to accept defeat gracefully. It still annoyed her. Solya had no real interest in her. If he wished to prove his loyalty, he could so in far better ways than paying court to someone who had been loyal in truth.

"Well," she said, "when I rejected your proposal, it wasn't _my_ intention to make you suddenly realize that you loved me after all. I imagine that makes us even, doesn't it?"

Solya chuckled. "Not a bad effort, apart from the bit where you've just admitted that there's nothing more than a simple friendship going on between you and Alosha. Of course, you're still a beginner."

"Unlike some people, I prefer honesty," Kasia said.

Solya's expression was a little surprised. "What's dishonest about being loyal to the person who best serves your interests? When it looked like Prince Marek was going to win the throne, I supported him. Now we have a new king. I want him to know how useful I can be. You make it sound like I lied to you, like I'm some kind of traitor. That's hardly fair, don't you think?"

"Was it fair when you tried to kill me?" Kasia asked.

"It was a complicated situation," Solya said. "Many people thought Marek would make a good king. Many people thought Sarkan and your friend traitors, monsters."

"Many people were wrong." Kasia thought that Solya should have been called The Snake, the way he would slither this way and that. The way he told it, the worst he'd done was make a mistake.

She doubted that he'd even admit that much out loud. He'd only imply it, suggest it, with the implication that he hadn't been alone, that he'd simply been swept along. That nothing had really been his fault at all.

"Yes," Solya said. "Happily, it all turned out all right in the end, in no small part thanks to you and Alosha. Polnya owes you a great debt."

 

They drew people's attention, she and Alosha, when they were together. Neither of them quite looked like anyone else at court did, but it was more than that.

Around Alosha, Kasia was able to relax. She didn't need to worry about saying the right thing, or checking for double meanings. She knew Alosha wouldn't play games with her without telling her first.

Kasia had thought that it might be difficult, to pretend that they were not just friends but lovers as well. She'd felt stiff, uncertain, the first time she and Alosha had attended a party together, even though they had done so before.

Talking to their host, she'd barely been aware of the words coming out of her mouth until Alosha had touched her arm, lightly. Kasia had turned her head, and Alosha had smiled, and suddenly, it had not been difficult at all. Instead, it had felt like she had been set free.

After her conversation with Solya, she had wondered if he would tell people that she and Alosha were not lovers, that they were only play-acting. It seemed like something he would do.

She did not regret having been honest with him, but she wondered if perhaps she should not have spoken to him at all, to give the illusion more time to become reality in people's minds.

 

As it turned out, she hadn't needed to worry. Solya had not told anyone that she and Alosha had decided to beat him at his own game by pretending to be together.

Instead, he appeared to have decided to continue the game by pulling it in a different direction.

"Are you and The Sword going to get married?" Stashek asked her, one day at the beach.

Kasia was surprised. It was Summer, and the sun had been warm on her skin. She had resigned herself to not being able to swim in the sea, but she still enjoyed the opportunity the outings to the beach gave her to have some time for herself and relax.

Nothing in the sea would try to seize Stashek and Marisha. Nobody could hide there, lying in ambush. There was only the sea itself - dangerous in its own way, when it chose to be, but not to a pair of children who had been taught how to stay safe.

"I will make it so you can," he added, misunderstanding her silence. "I'm the King, you know. I can do that, even if I still can't spit as far as Annushka."

"I don't know if we will get married," Kasia said. She did not think they would. Alosha had been married only once, more than a hundred years ago.

Kasia herself had never thought about marriage at all, other than to decide she did not want to get married to someone who only wanted her because she was so very strong, or because they had never seen any other girl who looked like her, or even because they had spoken with her nearly a dozen times and thought her both intelligent and charming.

Before, she had never allowed herself to think further ahead than when the Dragon would come and take her away. The girl she had been then might have been quite pleased to marry a lord.

"Well, if you decide you want to, don't worry about it," Stashek said. "I'll arrange everything."

"Thank you," Kasia said. He meant well, she knew. He wanted to do her a favor, to make her happy. 

He couldn't know that it was only a game, and that it would eventually end.

 

Once Alosha had been declared well enough again to work the forge, she had started working there again, making new arrows and swords and armor to replace what had been lost.

"It would be unfair to blame Stashek for what his uncle has done." Alosha shrugged. "Besides, if I were to only ever make weapons I knew would be used for nothing but good, I might as well resign myself to never making anything ever again."

Kasia liked to watch Alosha work, to see the look of absolute concentration on her face as she focused on nothing else but her work. It did not matter how many arrowheads or knives Alosha had already made; each one was given her absolute and undivided attention.

One of the first things Alosha had forged had been a dagger, to go with the sword Agnieszka had made her. Kasia had no need for a shield, or armor.

"You should find a hobby of your own," Alosha said, inspecting her work - a helmet for one of the guardsmen. "Something you enjoy doing, that will take your mind off of things."

Kasia grinned. "I'm too busy for hobbies." It was true. Even though the Wood was no longer the threat it had once been, she still disliked leaving Stashek and Marisha unguarded for too long.

"All the more reason to get one. They won't be kids forever, you know." Alosha nodded, content, and put the helmet down. "It will be easier if you learn to let go a little already now, rather than later, when you won't have a choice anymore."

"Wouldn't it be better to enjoy what you have for as long as possible?" Kasia wondered if Alosha was speaking from experience, if she was trying to keep Kasia from feeling the pain she herself had felt when her children had grown old and withered while Alosha had not.

"You can cherish things even though you know they won't last. Of course. But it's better to be aware of things like that from the beginning." Like Kasia had known from the beginning that she and Alosha would only play pretend, to teach Solya a lesson he would likely forget as soon as it suited him. "If you must love, love something that will last," Alosha added. "Love someone who knows what it is to live a long life. Who can share that burden."

"Someone like Solya? Or Ragostok?"

"Certainly," Alosha said. "If you have terrible taste and completely lack any sense, and are prepared to be disappointed time and time again."

Kasia smiled and dared, "Someone like you, then?"

"I was thinking of someone like you, actually," Alosha said, returning the smile. "These past weeks have been fun - and not just because Solya's looking sourer every day."

"I don't care about Solya."

"Good. I can guarantee you that he returns the feeling," Alosha said. "Will you come to Venezia with me one day? To meet my great-granddaughter? Not now, perhaps, but in another ten, twenty years, when the peace is more secure."

"Yes," Kasia said. "Will you come to Dvernik with me, not now, but soon? To meet my mother?"

Unlike Alosha's great-granddaughter, Kasia knew her mother would not be able to wait ten, twenty years to meet someone. Ten, she might manage, but twenty was unlikely already.

"Of course," Alosha said. "We can drop by to see Agnieszka, and Sarkan. I've been looking forwards to being able to tease him about having fallen madly in love for years and years."

"He might find some cause to tease you right back," Kasia said, feeling light and happy.

Alosha snorted. "He's welcome to try."


End file.
